


you're the sound of summer buzzing in my ears

by earlgrey_milktea



Series: milktea's saso2017 fills [21]
Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Fluff, Friendship, M/M, Prompt Fill, Summer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-24
Updated: 2017-06-25
Packaged: 2018-11-18 13:48:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11291922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/earlgrey_milktea/pseuds/earlgrey_milktea
Summary: 2 summer-themed pieces about summer bugs and the quiet evenings spent between them, together.





	1. cicadas singing in the forest

**Author's Note:**

> original prompt card [here](http://sportsanime.dreamwidth.org/22249.html?thread=11956457#cmt11956457)

“It’s so loud,” Kagami says.

“It’s their mating season,” Tetsuya replies, scooting over so the other boy can sit. The house is old, with shoji screen partitions and wooden ceilings, tatami flooring that squeaks in particular corners of the room and strings for light-switches. The kind of house you’d find out in the countryside. Tetsuya remembers visiting more often when he was a child, but as school picked up, this is the first time in a long time he’s visited his maternal grandparents.

Kagami kicks at his barefeet lightly. “I didn’t need to know that, Kuroko.”

“But you’re supposed to learn something new every day, Kagami-kun.”

Tetsuya doesn’t bother ducking out of Kagami’s reach when the other swats at his head. They sit in comfortable silence, staring out past the fence of the backyard, where trees obscure half the night sky. Cicada song surrounds them, loud and endless, almost overwhelming. Night has fallen completely, and if Tetsuya raises his head, he can see tiny specks of stars scattered across the dark sky. He hasn’t seen stars in a long, long time.

“Kagami-kun,” Tetsuya says, “have you ever gone cicada hunting?”

Kagami screws up his face as he considers. Tetsuya finds his eyes tracing the way his weird eyebrows scrunch together, his dark eyes lazily trailing across his grandmother’s plants, the quirk of his lips as he frowns thoughtfully. Kagami is all rough edges and large straightforward movements, the bare minimum of grace and yet Tetsuya finds it all too endearing. Kagami is warmth, the taste of sweat under summer sun, the feeling of ice cold water splashing onto his head.

“Nah,” Kagami says. He leans back on his hands, legs stretched out on the porch. He takes up nearly twice as much space as Tetsuya does. But that’s fine. There’s plenty of space here to share. “Grew up in the States, wasn’t that popular a thing where I lived.”

“What did you do in the summer then?”

“What else? Played basketball.” Kagami glances over then, and Tetsuya still likes the little jolt down his spine when their eyes meet. This boy sitting beside him, miles from Tokyo and away from city lights, with his grandparents retired to bed already, is like Tetsuya’s own secret to indulge in. “You don’t look like you were the bug-catching type of kid, you know.”

Tetsuya turns his face towards the cicadas singing away in the forest. “No. But I often played by myself, and there are quite a lot of cicada husks around here.”

Kagami shudders. “Please don’t go into any more details.”

“They’re kind of pretty, in a grossly fascinating way.” Tetsuya smiles. “Maybe we should go cicada hunting tomorrow.”

“Do we have to?”

Tetsuya widens his eyes innocently. “You want to stay here and play shogi with my grandpa?”

“Let’s go,” Kagami says immediately.

Tetsuya laughs. There’s a startled pause before Kagami joins in. The sound of their laughter blends in with the relentless noise of thousands of cicadas chorusing in the distance, and Tetsuya realizes with a soft, slow feeling of night breeze ruffling his hair—he’s happy. 


	2. fireflies at night

“Are you sure this is the right way?”

“Do you doubt my navigation skills, Kagami-kun?”

Taiga sighs. It’s not that he doubts Kuroko—he never has, not from that first determined promise in an empty basketball court on that fateful evening—but it’s dark, they’re far away from the inn the team has booked, and Taiga’s pretty sure he just gained at least nine new mosquito bites. He hopes it’s just mosquito bites, anyway.

There’s not a single soul out here on this tiny trail. Tall grass brushes their arms as they step further into the meadows. The map says there’s a lake hidden near here. All Taiga can hear is the call of cicadas in the distance and the hum of other bugs and was that a frog? Taiga isn’t a scaredy-cat, but he has been born and raised as a city boy all his life, so it’s a bit of an understatement to say he’s not a fan of bugs. He has no idea what’s out here hiding in the soft grass. He kind of wants to go back to his room, roll up safely in his futon... But here is Kuroko’s back in front of him, his pale hair illuminated by the moonlight as he moves steadily forwards, never faltering. 

Taiga can slam dunk basketballs ten times in a row, but he has never claimed to be strong enough to resist a certain ghost-like boy with the bluest eyes he has ever laid eyes on. 

“Kagami-kun.”

Taiga nearly runs over the other boy when he stops. He has his mouth open but immediately forgets what he was going to say when he lifts his gaze and catches sight of them.

Fireflies. Little glowing dots around the water edge, floating gently above the grass, drifting lazily overhead. Taiga isn’t one for fantasy, but he can’t deny the magic of this sight.

“Wow,” he breathes out.

“It’s beautiful,” Kuroko agrees. He steps forwards, a hand raised slightly. Taiga watches as the other boy stands impossibly still, and slowly, a single firefly comes over and hovers curiously over him.

There’s a small smile on Kuroko’s face. It’s the barest of tugs on his lips, a slight widening of his eyes. Under the soft glow of the fireflies, he looks absolutely ethereal. 

Taiga almost forgets to admire the lightning bugs around them, so busy admiring the boy in front of him.

When the night chill has finally caught up to them, and the mosquito bites are too much, they turn back towards the inn. They don’t talk, still in awe of the golden glow. Shyly, Taiga reaches out with a hand. With a soft smile, Kuroko takes it, and they take their time returning, fingers linked together with the quiet warmth of the bugs they leave behind.

**Author's Note:**

> @puddingcatbae on tumblr/twitter!!


End file.
